Santa Claus

Santa: A symbol of what humanity should struggle for; self-sacrifice, good will towards men, and Glad tidings to all. The idealism that humanity can overcome its greedy self-serving attitude.

          Most, if not all, children are taught to believe in Santa. Faith like a child is a well-known fact. The children know their parents would never lie to them.

          But, as we grow up, we find that it is the mind of the delusional who holds to such fabricated fantasies. If we were lied to about Santa, what else could we have been deceived about; Tooth Fairy, Ester Bunny, -- God?

          We have undermined our own ability to believe absolutely. In the back of our sub-conscious minds, we can no longer fully trust in a childlike faith.  

          God may prevent Satan from influencing children, maybe not, but Satan doesn’t need to dominate the children. The parents do the will of Satan for him. Satan is the deceiver, the liar; and while we know it, we choose to overlook, that he is smarter than we mortals are. 

          God gave us laws. And, for those who rebel against laws, he gave parables. And, for those who are too literal for parables he gave warnings. And, for those who take all of that as foolish over dramatization, he gave us the vision of the future. Yet, with all of this, we still do not heed his words. We are like moths drawn to the flames of hell. 

Jesus says clearly that it would be better to tie an anchor around our neck and be drown in the ocean than to lead a child astray. Even the seemingly harmless magic of Santa, is deceiving—lying. Great evil always strikes at the vulnerable targets. Who is more defenseless than our children. 

Proverbs teaches that a wise man makes himself better to help others become better, but a fool lives only to die. The way of the fool seems right to him, but a wise man seeks counsel. We all too often seek our own counsel, or the other easy path—following the rest of the lemmings off the cliff.

My six year old son pointed out to me a fact that I cannot deny. I am a bad parent. 

Son: “I’m afraid to sleep in my bed because of the aliens.”

Dad: “There are no such things as aliens, but if they were real God would protect you from them.”

Son: “God isn’t real. The aliens and zombies are.”

Ouch, what have I done. The schools, TV, and the rest of the world have been doing my job—wrong. Proverbs 22:6Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Another instance just tonight. We were watching the 1994 Miracle on 34^th Street and someone said Santa isn’t real. Instantly my six year old says’ “He is real.”

I had to think about it for a while. There are so many movies about Santa, and how the parents don’t believe in him, and no later than the end of the movie, everyone believes. Even Christian movies don’t show God himself when proving the existence of God through the story. 

I don’t know the answers. The Amish seem to be just as messed up as the rest of us. I guess I will have to trust that God has a plan, and no matter how bad I mess things up, as long as I am doing his will, he will make it work.

Santa: A hope for humanity, and its giving up on self-destructive behavior; or a carefully constructed plan to weaken the ability of man to believe in the divine authority of the invisible creator?

FYI, Nicolas is one of Satan’s names. Saint Nicolas= Saint Devil.

Santa or Satan. 

Jolly old Saint Nick. Old Nick: A well-known British name of the Devil.

Kriss Kringle A US name for Santa Claus derived from the German Christkindl (little Christ child).

If Satan’s want is power and to be god, then what better way than to impersonate Christ through children’s greatest love—Santa Clause. Everything about Santa Claus can be found in the Bible—describing Jesus.

Shut the Hell Up

 I know what you are thinking, but hell is not a bad word, it’s a bad place. Hell is not the underworld were the devil lives and rules from. It is prison for the devil and all of the sinners--those that hate and reject God--like him. 

Jesus never defended his earthly body, career, possessions, or his rights. The one thing in the world he deemed valuable enough to defend was the house of his father— he chased out the money hungry televangelists.

When Jesus was on trial for crimes of which he was innocent, his only defense was to remain quiet. Jesus never uttered a word in defense. He could have annihilated them with his words alone, yet he chose to sacrifice his rights and entitlement to life, liberty, and the pursuit of inconsequential earthliness.

In his prayer to God he revealed that he had no want to suffer and die. It was no sick masochistic desire to suffer. His only will was to serve his father. His father, God, did not want him to suffer and die, but was willing to allow it in order to fulfill the purpose of his dirt-flesh body.

Jesus is God, in a way that we humans cannot understand, but in his mortal form he chose to set the perfect example for us. Despite our self-proclaimed greatness, our human form is as nothing—dirt. We are a soul, we have a body.

Philippians 2:5-8

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

After Jesus allowed them to do their worst to him, after they tortured him, defamed him, and finally killed him, then he proved himself.

Jesus remained sinless and rested on the Sabbath. But, on the day after the Sabbath, he acted. Jesus lifted his corpse from the bondages of death and proved by his actions that he was no liar, and he is the son of God.

When we think our injustice is too much to bear, are we better than Jesus? When the world’s cruelty is too unbearable, are you saying that you do not deserve it, because you are better than the son of God?

Why did Jesus remain quit, even in the face of such a great wrong? Maybe he knew something that we don’t— but should. Regardless of whether he could have talked his way out of trouble or not, he showed us truth. He did not tell us, but showed us. 

All through the Old Testament the tongue was the example of evil words spoken. We were told of its condemning effects. In the New Testament Jesus showed that evil is overcome by taming the tongue. Resist the devil and he will flee from you, so he cannot take you down with him.

So, if we keep our mouths shut, we are essentially shutting the gate to hell, because our words show our sin and cause others to sin.

The more we say, the less people hear. People always focus on the negative. People are only hearing your negativity, and are oblivious to anything encouraging you may have to say. You words of anger invalidate any words of love.

Proof of your love, or lack of, is in how you speak of those whom you claim to love when they are not around. Are your words loving and worthy, or are they selfish hate filled and un-Godly.

Grumbling about your spouse to your children is destructive. Whining to your family about your spouse is destructive. Complaining to friends, willing and unwilling to hear, is destructive. Abaddon, Apollyon, The "Destroyer" Released. Satan comes to lie, steal, and kill; what side do your actions show you to be on.

If your rage and un-Godly ways spread to those around you, you are working for the devil. And, he is rewarding you with eternal damnation. 

Doing right isn’t rewarded. It is a sacrifice to God, a giving up of one’s self, to allow the holy spirit of God to work freely in us. No matter the pains and suffering of life, the rewards are in heaven alone. 

To give up one’s self, is to give up selfishness and pride— our most prized possession— our entitlement to what we what and the consequences be damned.

The bible teaches us ways to live healthy Godly lives, but we have to purposely put it into practice. We must believe it, or we cannot live it. If you do not live it, you do not believe it.

James 1:22

English Standard Version (ESV)

 ²²But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

2 Timothy 2:14-26

English Standard Version (ESV)

 ¹⁴Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. ¹⁵Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. ¹⁶But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, ¹⁷and their talk will spread like gangrene.

Sin is a disease, and like all bacteria, virus, and fungus, it will grow and consume your entire existence, if it is left untreated. Hate, gossip, lying, deceiving, quarreling, are as addictive as gambling, alcoholism, porn, abuse, and are just as destructive to any relationship. 

If you can’t stop yourself, decide to get new friends who won’t encourage you to sin. Stay away from family members who perpetuate your sinning for the purpose of using you to get what they want. None of them truly love you if they will allow you to, or help you to, destroy your marriage, children, or other Christians.

1 Corinthians 15:33

English Standard Version (ESV)

³³ Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals."

You must choose to be on God’s side, he is already on yours. Not choosing is still choosing, just the wrong side, any side that is not God’s is the devil’s. You must choose to shut your own personal door to hell.

James 1:26

English Standard Version (ESV)

 ²⁶If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

So, shut it. Shut your mouth, the gate to hell. You will find that even your negative thoughts will fade. Negativity and anger are not as fun as you think; it’s an addiction like crack that you only think you can’t live without.

Proverbs 13:3

Listen

Listen

     When the air is still and the wind silent, a peaceful calm envelopes my mournful heart with joy and pleasure, but my mind thinks its thoughts, and soon with rancid contemplation my heart is consumed by a placid lull which devours its intoxicating love.

     Without love to pacify the languid beast, the raging monster bellows to life and devours weakness and timid souls.

     But, through the raging onslaught of hateful fury and noisome ruckus, a quiet whisper echoes through my soul. Its gentle guidance and unconditional love drown out the frightful yells and screams of chaos, hate, and rage.

     Like the single candle that drives through the darkness, also does the whisper of someone who loves us so, even in the turmoil of a fading sanity. The whisper by nature is loving and kind, and is desperately yearning to be listened to freely.

     With God, there is no more silence and hopeless loneliness, and the beast dies, never to return to the realm of our human soul to prey on its weaknesses and fears. Enveloped by God's love, that lives forever in us and keeps us safe from ourselves—

we thrive.

Why Is God So Hard To Find?

The Existence of God, to man, is like the indisputable fact that the sun rises, to a blind man.  The blind man cannot see the sun rise for himself, but only hears of it from those who have witnessed it.

    How do you convince a blind man, who was born into the darkness of night, to believe that the sun rises? You can't, he can only believe it for himself. How do you convince someone, who was born into the darkness of sin, to believe in God?

    Only the blind man who is searching for the sunrise, and is truly seeking understanding, will feel the morning’s first rays of warmth on his upturned face.

    As only the sun can prove its existence to a blind man, so can only God prove his existence to a man who does not see him; but he will only if the man is seeking him. It is too easy to take such things for granted that we see every day, but don't attribute to existence.

Christian Americans - Fear and Hope

You will never reach American’s by preaching to them that they are going to hell. Fear may be a powerful motivator, but American’s are arrogant and prideful. They are at the peak of their rebelliousness, and shoveling the fire and brimstone into their faces will only force them to rebel yet more— feeding their self-righteousness with your need to be right more than your caring for their wellbeing.

The truth is, Jesus never would have burned a Curran, picketed a funeral, or attacked another church. What he did do was attack the evil that was sprouting in his own church. He let people come to him. People came to him because he was love incarnate— in the flesh.

I for one dislike pandering to their selfish lifestyle, but American’s have been deceived and desensitized to fear. We love and adore horror movies, violence, and all sorts of evil. To preach the terror card is like trying to convince a shark the benefits of a vegetarian diet.

The truth is, that fear mongers, and that is what bible thumpers and the like are, will not save people with their terroristic tactics. American’s need to see the benefits in real world applications. Their selfishness is also their weakness. American’s need to be around, and not just witness from a distance, real Christians. Christians that do not condemn and spew their hatred as righteous.

American’s do not need to be scorned by self-loving Christians that advertise how great they are because they don’t cuss, watch bad TV, or that they do any number of things that are holier than others are. It has been my experience that Christians that have to advertise that they are are generally the worst egomaniacs.

How can someone bragging about how great they are, because they have Jesus, show the love of Christ to the already confused, who may or may not be seeking what is right. Jesus humbled himself before God and man, yet we believe we can bully others into following Jesus, so that we can punch our harvest card. It has been said that if all you are doing is planting the seeds of salvation, but never reap a harvest of souls, that you must be doing something wrong. Trying to force the numbers is not impressing God.

In the seventies and eighties, pop music was all about love. It created a fantasy view of what real love is, and we have been desensitized even to that. Our counter to that is to show real love; not to preach love or sing about romance, but to share our lives, our time, and our attention to those in need of it. Our own selfishness is driving Christians into a brick wall of delusion. We falsely believe that we can stand back and criticize those who are following the wrong path and lead them back to the ways of love.

In today’s American culture, love is more a matter of convenience. We still have a desire to love and be loved, but should anything cause even the smallest of obstacles, it’s time to start over and find the next perfect person. We have been deluded into believing that there is only one perfect mate, and that out of the billions of people on the planet, there is no hope of ever finding them, so we seek, and never find.

We are shown, on television and movies, a romanticized fantasy love. Where actors spend years learning to act like decent human beings. The people in movies are as fake as the traits they are portraying. And we learn that that is what love should be like, and maybe it is what love should be like, but it is not— not our human capacity for love anyway.

When God created man, it wasn’t a product of too much fun and, oops, he was a father. God made us and formed us with his own hands, then breathed into us the soul of our being. Everything else in creation he spoke into being, but he molded us— with his love. God’s love is the real love that we need and sometimes subconsciously seek. People will always fail us— they are only human after all.

However, if we fail them, it should be, at least, with the right heart. Then we should do every in our capacity to make it right. Humble ourselves before those who we choose to love and show them that we are not attempting to control and manipulate them for the sake of our twisted desire to be right. We will never dominate others into submitting their will to God and his want for our love in return.

Matthew 6: Translation— stop doing things for the attention of man, and do what is right by God as testimony to his love for you. Humble yourselves and you will never feel that you are being disregarded, because you will already know that you are unworthy. You do not deserve God’s love and mercy, yet he died for you to show that he really does care and is willing to go to great lengths so that none need choose to suffer death and hell.

Is it any wonder that people would choose a god that does not exist rather than believe in a loving God followed by rage spewing fear mongers.